Tianwen 1: What Will Zhurong Do When Tianwen 1 Gets To Mars?
Tianwen 1: What Will Zhurong Do When Tianwen 1 Gets To Mars?
Tianwen 1 is China's first independent interplanetary mission. The probe is currently in a polar orbit around Mars and is scheduled to deploy a descent module to attempt the country’s first landing on the Red Planet in mid-May. China Space Program Officials have not announced the exact date for the attempted Mars landing. Tianwen 1 will release its lander and rover named Zhurong from its position in orbit around Mars, Unlike Most Mars landers, such as NASA’s Perseverance rover, enter the Martian atmosphere on a direct course from Earth. So, Why Do We Need Tianwen-1?
Tianwen-1 mars mission's rover Zhurong will search for pockets of water using radar mounted on the rover. The European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft found evidence for subsurface water using radar from orbit, but this will be the first time a rover has searched from the ground. (NASA’s Perseverance rover also has a radar instrument.)
Tianwen-1's goals include analyzing and mapping the Martian surface and geology, looking for water ice, and studying the climate and surface environment. This China mars mission could also be considered a step toward an even more ambitious project. This probe benefited from China's engineering successes with its lunar explorations, and will in turn provide valuable data and experience to a future Chinese mission that would return soil and mineral samples from Mars to Earth, according to the Planetary Society. Despite the impressive advances made in placing miniature science instruments on spacecraft, only Earth-bound technology can date samples with absolute precision, reproduce scientific results, and verify the presence or absence of life in a sample.
Credit:
https://phys.org
https://theconversation.com
https://www.space.com/
https://www.planetary.org
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